Arrogant jerk. He’d acted like she was sure to fail. He’d even shown her how to turn on the alarm in case she got scared and wanted to give up early. His parting words—“Watch out for snakes”—had clearly been meant to frighten her.
Unfortunately, it was good advice. Rajiv had progressed to his second life after a cobra bite.
She took another deep breath. She was not giving up. She’d roamed many a forest in the dark of night without getting scared. Of course, she was usually in tiger form when that happened. And she was rarely alone, since all the were-tigers of Tiger Town shifted and hunted together.
In spite of that, she had successfully sniffed out Han’s camp in Myanmar by herself. So she could do this, too. She had her knives, her determination, her excellent night vision, and her nose.
But she had a problem. The air was so still and muggy that she was having trouble catching Russell’s scent. If she could just get a breeze from the right direction . . .
She glanced at the watch’s glow-in-the-dark face. Four minutes up already. A rising swell of panic crept up her chest.
Quickly she swung her backpack off and retrieved the red silk bag containing her mother’s bracelets. She hadn’t worn them before for fear they might gleam in the moonlight and cause her escape to be seen. “Mom, Dad, I need help. Be with me, please.”
She clasped the bracelets around her wrists, the right one just above Russell’s watch, and, as usual, they gave her a sense of comfort. Her family loved her. They were depending on her. Their were-tiger blood ran through her veins. She had their skills, their power. She just needed to trust in it.
After slipping the backpack on, she closed her eyes and focused all her attention on the smells surrounding her. The new growth and decay of the forest. The scent of animals, some asleep in their burrows, others roaming about. Slowly, she rotated. Trust your instincts. The tiger will know.
The scent was so faint that she wasn’t sure if she was imagining it, but it was all she had to go on. She headed northwest. No doubt Russell was testing her past the limit of her ability. He had to be over three miles away. The undead creep had probably set her up to fail.
Every five minutes she stopped and rotated, sniffing the air carefully. Her gut feeling remained the same. Northwest.
After twenty-five minutes, she knew her instincts had steered her right. His scent was coming in clearly now. With a grin, she quickened her pace.
Ten minutes later, she came across a stream. Yes! This had to be the one that ran through Russell’s cave.
“Take that, vampire. You’ll have to work with me now.” She hurried upstream, and his scent grew stronger.
It was a surprisingly nice scent for a vampire. The bad ones like Han usually smelled of human blood. After all, she thought with disgust, you are what you eat. With a shudder, she recalled the stench of Lord Qing, one of Han’s deceased vampire lords. He’d smelled of rancid blood, greasy hair, and centuries-old unwashed skin.
Jin Long and the other good Vamps she knew had a cleaner, more sterile smell. Something to do with the synthetic blood they drank, she guessed. That and they believed in bathing.
Russell’s scent was similar, but somehow earthier. Maybe it came from living in a cave in the middle of a forest. The coppery scent of blood was overshadowed by the fresh smells of pine, oak, and moss. His hair had carried the scent of a melted mountain glacier. And his skin had smelled like . . . man. A strong, virile man in his prime, powerful and . . .
She scoffed at herself. There was no point in dwelling on his handsome face or glorious muscles. Or how her heart had raced when she’d snuggled up against him. She could never be interested in a vampire. How could she forget that it was a vampire who had killed her brother and parents?
Besides, Russell had no interest in her other than her nose. If she didn’t prove her skill at sniffing out bloodsuckers, he’d drop her off in Tiger Town without a second thought. The heartless jerk. She’d tried twice in the past to trust him, and both times, he’d let her down.
He didn’t seem to know how much he’d hurt her. Most probably, he didn’t care. It had been her fault for wanting to believe in him, for imagining him as some kind of hero who understood and shared her need for vengeance. After years of pursuing her mission all alone, she’d longed for someone to help her shoulder the burden. Someone who would understand the pain that still tormented her. Someone who would acknowledge her strength and skill without trying to lock her up in the palace to play princess.
With a sigh, she realized she’d wanted Russell to be the one. He was the only one she’d ever met who was as dedicated to killing Han as she was. And he was so wonderfully strong and capable that she couldn’t help but be impressed by him. Deep down in her heart, she wanted him to be equally impressed by her. They needed each other in order to succeed. She’d wanted to believe that so much that she’d ignored his constant warnings. I work alone.
“Not anymore. We’ll be a team now, whether you like it or not.” She winced, knowing he would reply not.
Eventually, the stream disappeared into a pile of rocks. What had Russell said? The stream went through a rock tunnel for a mile or so? She had to be close.
She glanced at the watch. Fifteen minutes to go. The terrain was hillier now, and she breathed heavily as she scrambled up a steep hill. At the top, she stopped and sniffed. His scent was strong. She was closing in.
Her heart pounded, imagining his surprise when she arrived at his secret hideout. But what if he was disappointed? He might look for any reason to break up their partnership. In that case, she needed to make sure she proved valuable to him. No matter what happened, she couldn’t allow herself to be a burden.
Russell paced in the bat cave, alternately congratulating and cursing himself for leaving Jia three and a quarter miles away. At first, he’d assured himself it was a good strategic move to test her to the max, but now he acknowledged he was full of shit. The ugly truth was he had set her up to fail.
What else could he have done? Every time he pulled her into his arms to teleport, he was tempted to hold her longer than necessary. Every time he looked into her eyes or saw her smile, he felt a tug at his undead heart. He couldn’t allow this to continue. Feelings would distract him, make him weak. Weakness would cause him to fail.
But what if he needed her tracking abilities? If he did, then her failure would ultimately bring about his own. And if anything happened to her in the forest, he didn’t know if he could forgive himself. Already he had the deaths of too many people on his shoulders.
Dammit. Was he putting Jia in danger just to avoid a severe case of lust? After teleporting to his cave, he’d taken a cold shower, and it hadn’t helped. His groin reacted every time he recalled the way she’d cuddled up against him and nuzzled his neck. She was so damned sweet and soft. And so alone out there in the dark forest.
“Ow.” He winced as his foot rammed into a table leg. Normally, he could see well in the dark, but he wasn’t paying enough attention. Already she was distracting him.
He turned on his sat phone to see how much time had passed. Fifty minutes. She had ten minutes to go. He strained his ears but couldn’t hear the alarm. She hadn’t given up early.
A sense of respect filled his chest with warmth. His Jia was brave. Clever and resourceful.
His Jia? What the hell—
A noise interrupted his thoughts. He stiffened, listening closely. Someone or something was moving through the woods and not being quiet about it. Was it Jia, purposefully making noise to ward off predators?
He quickly turned off the phone. The ceiling above his kitchen and table area was very thin and porous—nothing more than a thin layer of tangled roots. Any light in the bat cave might shine through a bit, so he was being careful to keep the cave dark. She had to find him by scent alone.
He paced some more. Checked his phone. Eight minutes to go. His nerves tensed. What if she found him? What if he got to see her pretty smile every night? And he would be able to hold her and talk to her. Maybe even . . .
He shook his head. She was engaged to someone else. You can’t have her. The warning message flared from his brain but fizzled out before it reached his heart. To hell with it all. He wanted her to find him.
The thrashing sounds outside grew closer. Please be Jia.
He teleported aboveground, then levitated high into a tree so he could see who or what was approaching.